Developer Neocore Games has been slowly unveiling more information about their medieval strategy game King Arthur, a game they are calling a Role Playing Wargame.
Judging from the shots of both the battle engine and campaign maps, it looks a lot like a Creative Assembly game. But so did Imperial Glory, and it wasn’t much good.
The RPG aspects seem to be the core difference. Armies will be centered around Knights, superhero figures that can explore new realms and provide battle bonuses. Like Malory’s Morte d’Arthur, this will not be an historically appropriate King Arthur, a Dark Age chieftain, but the Arthur of High Middle Age legend – plate mail, sorcery, giants, troubadors.
From the press kit:
Knightly quests are tied to the POIs on the Campaign Map. You have to send heroes to the special locations so they could participate in the adventure. Quests are short stories where the chosen knight has to make decisions somewhat similar to the classic style made famous by the Fighting Fantasy books. Some adventures end in real-time battles.
In the Saga gameplay mode the Morality of King Arthur has a huge impact on the storyline. Every decision that the player makes will determine the Morality and the future of King Arthur: he can become a Christian or a pagan king, a rightful or a ruthless monarch. These choices unlock special contents, allies, heroes, units and developments and it also influences the possible alliances.
Neocore’s most recent game was last spring’s Crusaders: Thy Kingdom Come. I have no idea whether it was any good. But it was also an historical strategy RPG thing. If any of you have had any experience with it beyond that review linked above, please give me a clue as to what to expect here.
King Arthur saves the day early next year.
I played Crusader and reviewwed it at Softpedia. It’s a weird game. The idea to couple a RPG layer and camp management with tactical battles is good. The problem was that the RPG and management elements were pretty shallow while the battles were limited in scope. And it crashed a lot…
Like the above poster, the idea of mixing the two genres make me salivate in a way few other mash-ups could, and King Arthur seems a ripe mythos to tap into for this kind of game. Naturally it’s all up to the execution. Hopefully if this game proves semi-popular a developer with more clout could produce something in a similar vein (genre-wise).